At the Home Office - officials need to tackle the 'Albanian gang crisis'

One of them, the ludicrously named but feared ‘Hellbanianz’ gang are, or were, based on an estate in Barking, with members often showing off their criminal exploits on social media.

Worse, UK asylum tribunals gave consent between 2021-2022 to more than half of all Albanian claimants, even though Albania is a perfectly safe country by international standards. What could Albanians be fleeing from, other than poverty, which is not, and has never been, a legal route to asylum.

Back in January two evil Albanian crime leaders Gjelosh Kolicaj and Resul Rahova were jailed for money laundering and drugs trafficking – but our supine judges then allowed them to avoid deportation as this would ‘breach their human rights’ - under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The pair organised groups of couriers travelled 80 times from the UK in two years to Albania, taking with them cash in suitcases of more than £100,000 – or a total of £8 million – secreted back to their homeland.After 14 years in power the Tory Government has singularly failed to protect the British from these gangster – and it seems highly unlikely that any incoming Labour Government after July 4th will take stern action either.

Interestingly, Irish gangs of old used to dominate scams at second-hand car auctions, in mass dumping of waste, and in setting up caravan sites on rural spots then demanding money from locals to leave. In addition, it was the Vietnamese who once controlled most of the drugs supply in the UK.

But no longer: in both cases much more violent and ruthless criminals from Albania have elbowed aside all other gangs – not least because the Albanians are armed and won’t hesitate to use them on those who stand in their way.

Back in Albania drugs gangs have bribed prison officials and smuggled guns inside in order to carry out murders of rival gang members. This has enabled convicted gangsters to claim they cannot be deported to Albania as the prisons are no longer ‘safe’.In truth it is not just the UK but much of Europe which must get a grip on Albanian crime as their tentacles penetrate many communities in mainland Europe, too.

Only a coordinated, supra-national initiative will succeed in tackling the growing levels of violence and extortion that inevitably take place in the wake of drugs trafficking.

As Britain enters a short sharp election period – all parties should be asked: “What do you intend to do to eliminate these gangs”? And would they implement leaving the ECHR in order to give Parliament and the courts a free hand at last to deport convicted criminals – and not just Albanians - but Poles and Romanians, both of which nationalities now have more than 600 in UK jails?

In El Salvador, a country sickened by decades of endless blood-letting by seemingly untouchable gangs, finally rounded up 80,000 and jailed them in a maxi-prison with the most basic conditions.

That, of course, won’t happen in Europe.. but something has to happen soon before Albanian crime gangs become permanently embedded in Britain.